Social Media — a lot more than just being social

What comes to mind when you hear Social Media? We all have different ideas of what social media is to us. Recently, I asked my Twitter followers to share with me why they love social media. The responses ranged from its impact in aiding human relations to job and business opportunities and even to politics and ideology. Social Media is to different people different things but one thing we can agree on I think is that Social Media has given many a voice.

WhatIs.com defines Social Media has the collective of online communications channels dedicated to community-based input, interaction, content-sharing, and collaboration.

Social Media is built on values that make us human; values like community, interaction, sharing, and collaboration. These are not new, what has changed is that now it’s online, virtual, transcending distance and a whole lot of barriers. With Social Media, communication is quick; sharing information, affection, and more across thousands of miles, in real-time. Social Media hasn’t just changed how we are communicating, it has also changed what we are saying.

I considered a few numbers from DreamGrow around social media; Facebook is the largest social platform with over 2.2 billion users, don’t forget the global population is bordering the region of 7 billion people. Right after Facebook is YouTube, the number one social platform for video content with about 1.9 billion users and then Instagram with about 1 billion users. Those are huge figures and influence, and it keeps growing.

Other than just being social, what else on Social Media? There really is no getting away from its ‘social’ effect but let’s take a look at a few ways Social Media can be used within the virtual space.

Social Media & Personal Branding

Social Media channels are a virtual extension of your personal brand. Today, we talk about social recruiting where employers now checkup social media footprints of candidates to determine if they are a good fit for their organization. A candidate’s social media activities can aid a job application or damage it.

People can make conclusions about you based on your online ‘vibes’. So it’s important to be very intentional in the use of social media. While we are different people and our social media channels reflect that, there are a few best practices to pay attention to.

Consistency: be consistent in the brand you portray online and offline and across different social channels.

Clarity: be clear on what you portray and how you portray it.

Professionalism: be professional always even in fun things.

Social Media in Corporate Communications

When it comes to using social media as a marketing communications tool, we must never forget, it is a means to an end and not the end.

How an organization communicates with its audience is dependent on its industry and line of business. There are certain industries where there is little or no regulation on advertising while in some there are strict regulations. An organization in a B2B can’t communicate like a B2C company, the audience is different. Let’s take a look at some ways corporate brands can and are using social media:

Talk about themselves and what they are doing — stay visible in the market and industry.

Engage with customers — be on the frontline of market needs and complaints of customers.

Resolve Issues — provide customers with quick issue resolution services while ‘the world watches’. This is very crucial in building credibility in the online space.

Get Feedback — get firsthand information on what customers think about their products and services.

Create Awareness — when launching a new product or service, Social Media is a go-to place!

Monitor Trends — Social Media is a good place to know what people are talking about. It’s called social listening.

Social Media for Direct Business

Of course, there is the use of social media for a direct business like selling products; for instance, there are a lot of businesses without a website; just an Instagram page yet making sales and expanding their customer base. There is also the case of social media influencers who have large social media followership and advertise for brands on their page for a fee.

See? These are a lot more than just being social.